My girls have both loved stamping from a young age and adding alphabet stamps to their creative play has been a natural progression as they have shown interest in learning about letters. Alphabet stamps really are a fabulous resource to use with children in preschool, kindergarten and beyond as children in the early grades of school can use the stamps to reinforce learning of spelling and sight words. If you don’t own a set of alphabet stamps these are some sets I would recommend;
10 Ideas for Learning with Alphabet Stamps
1. Create an invitation to stamp with a stamping match! On a large sheet of paper stamp a collection of single letters randomly across the page and then leave the stamps and stamp pad as an invitation for your child to find and stamp each letter’s match.
2. Use clean stamps (no ink) to stamp impresions into playdough. You can find 7 ideas for playing Stamp and Spell with playdough here.
3. Roll out a piece of playdough and stamp a name, word or collection of letters. Challenge your child to find and hide one letter at a time. To hide it they need to smooth the playdough with their finger, adding a little finger strengthening to your play!
4. Make your very own Concentration matching game. Stamp pairs of letters onto small card pieces, or for a fun twist, stamp inside a collection of sea shells.
5. Stamp patterns with the letters onto long strips of paper – AAB AAB AAB.
6. Make a set of alphabet rocks by stamping with ink or acrylic paint onto stones. Seal with a spray sealant once dry to protect.
7. Try stamping onto kinetic sand. Via Picklebums.
8. Have stamping races. Choose a word ( a name, spelling word, sight word, etc) and race each other to be the first to finish stamping it.
9. Use your stamps to make your very own clay letter alphabet. Via Sugar Aunts.
10. Dedicate a set of small letter stamps to kitchen adventures and stamp your cookies before baking.
More fun ideas for literacy learning:
Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.
